Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2022 announces filmmaker awards
The 2022 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Presented by Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort announced the award-winning films and filmmakers for this year’s 31st edition of the festival. Rodrigo Reyes’ SANSÓN AND ME won the jury prize for Best U.S. Feature, and Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing’s HIDDEN LETTERS won the jury prize and the Audience Choice Award for Best International Feature, and Bhawin Suchak and Ira Mckinley’s OUTTA THE MUCK earned the award for Best Southern Feature.
Verena Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA was the recipient of this year’s HSDFF Critics Prize, and Laura Checkoway’s THE CAVE OF ADULLAM led the Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award winners taking the prize for Best U.S. Feature.
“This year marked a wonderful and rousing success, as we continue to foster conversation and connection between attending filmmakers and industry, students in our education programs, and, of course, our dedicated patrons here in Hot Springs through our inspiring and thought-provoking slate,” said Festival Director Sheryl Santacruz, “These award-winning films were also exemplary of the kind of thoughtful and dynamic filmmaking that the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has built its taste-making reputation on, and our audiences have celebrated throughout our three decade-long history.”
Once again, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival put together an incredible group of film industry veterans, influencers, tastemakers, filmmakers, and journalists to not only serve as jury members, but offer their thoughts regarding each of this year’s winning films.
Regarding their selection of Reyes’ SANSÓN AND ME for the Best U.S. Feature Film Jury Prize, they said, “While the jury had a difficult task choosing from this amazing lineup, we were particularly struck by a film that was formally and conceptually daring, but always in service of the raw human emotion at the center of the story. The trust that participants in a very vulnerable position had in this filmmaker was visible in the film, as was the director’s willingness to interrogate their own life and practice, and in fact the ethics of all documentary practice. Personal and provocative, intellectually complex but deeply humanistic.”
When discussing the Best International Feature Film prize winner, Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing’s HIDDEN LETTERS,the jury stated, “This poetic and haunting portrait of identity and solidarity following two women as they attempt to preserve an ancient secret artform that granted a voice to Chinese women for generations both moved and enlightened us.”
Regarding the selection of Bhawin Suchak and Ira Mckinley’s OUTTA THE MUCK for Best Southern Feature Film, they jury said, “This film grabbed our attention with its wholly unique vision of a city resting quietly on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. With stunning cinematography and a captivating array of Black personalities captured sweetly in telling their stories, which unfold a deep history of proud citizens whose home is a celebration of life and opportunity. Told as an unconventional and rhythmic visual poem, dripping with joy and life just as thick as the “muck” that Pahokee, Florida is known for and its folk, and one special family, have climbed up so successfully from.”
For the selection of Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA for the HSDFF Critics’ Prize, the jury cited the film “for its deft and moving juxtaposition of groundbreaking medical procedure footage with the astounding verité that reveals the all too human frailty of medical professionals and all of us whom they have chosen to serve.”
Two HSDFF Critics’ Prize Honorable Mentions were given this year. Saeed Taji Farouky’s A THOUSAND FIRES received a Critics’ Prize Honorable Mentionfor Achievement in Cinematography. Shot by Farouky, Than Win Han, and Joshua Min Htut, the jury cited their work, “for its careful attention to the daily rhythms of one family’s life working in the hand-drilled oil fields of Myanmar, from the quiet moments of affection to their ardent sense of spiritual devotion.” A second Critics’ Prize Honorable Mention went to Laura Tomaselli and Jesse Short Bull’s LAKOTA NATION VS. THE UNITED STATES for Achievement in Editing. Edited by Tomaselli, the film was praised, “for confronting the centuries of injustice faced by the native Lakota people in an invigorating and propulsive assemblage of original footage, archival footage including pop culture touchstones, and poetic reflections on America’s brutal and enduring colonial history.
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Short Film was Audrey Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Jean-Baptiste’s LISTEN TO THE BEAT OF OUR IMAGES. The award qualifies the film for Academy Award consideration. The PBS Reel South Short Award which comes with a $1400 cash prize and distribution on Reel South’s platforms, went to Andy Sarjahani’s TO THE BONE.
Additional Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Awards went to Alexander Jeffery’s YOU HAVE NO IDEA, which made its world premiere at HSDFF, for Best Southern Feature, Olivia Martin-McGuire’s FREEDOM SWIMMER for Best International Short Film, Dana Reilly’s FAVORITE DAUGHTER for Best U.S. Short Film, and Kyle Gibbins’ SOUTH for Best Southern Short Film. The award is named after the former festival Communications Director, who was one of the film festival’s most passionate supporters until he passed in 2020.
For more information on the Hot Springs Documentary Film festival, please visit: hsdfi.org.
The 2022 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Award Winners:
Best U.S. Feature Film
SANSÓN AND ME directed by Rodrigo Reyes
Best International Feature Film
HIDDEN LETTERS directed by Violet Du Feng & Zhao Qing
Best Southern Feature Film
OUTTA THE MUCK directed by Bhawin Suchak & Ira Mckinley
HSDFF CRITICS’ PRIZES
Critics Prize
DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA directed by Verena Paravel
& Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Critics Prize – Honorable Mention for Achievement in Cinematography
A THOUSAND FIRES directed by Saeed Taji Farouky,
and cinematography by Saeed Taji Farouky, Than Win Han, and Joshua Min Htut
Critics Prize – Honorable Mention for Achievement in Cinematography
LAKOTA NATION VS. THE UNITED STATES directed by Laura Tomaselli & Jesse Short Bull,
and edited by Laura Tomaselli
SHORT FILMS
Best Short Documentary Film
LISTEN TO THE BEAT OF OUR IMAGES directed by Audrey Jean-Baptiste
& Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Reel South Award (In partnership with PBS Reel South)
TO THE BONE directed by Andy Sarjahani
MATT DECAMPLE AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
Audience Choice Award for Best U.S. Feature
THE CAVE OF ADULLAM directed by Laura Checkoway
Audience Choice Award for Best International Feature
HIDDEN LETTERS directed by Violet Du Feng & Zhao Qing
Audience Choice Award for Best Southern Feature
YOU HAVE NO IDEA directed by Alexander Jeffery
Audience Choice Award for Best International Short
FREEDOM SWIMMER directed by Olivia Martin-McGuire
Audience Choice Award for Best U.S. Short
FAVORITE DAUGHTER directed by Dana Reilly
Audience Choice Award for Best Southern Short
SOUTH directed by Kyle Gibbins
2022 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Jury Members
SHORT FILM JURY
Chloe Coover, Artist Development, Free the Work
Nani Walker, LA Times Doc Shorts
Aurora Brachman, HSDFF Alum, Joychild + Gallery That Destroys All Shame
INTERNATIONAL FEATURES JURY
Rory Thost, Director of Documentary, Participant Media
Ranell Shubert, Producer and Editor, What’s Up With Docs
Jesse Knight, Film Programmer at AFI
U.S. FEATURES JURY
Ryan Lattanzio, Deputy Managing Editor, IndieWire
Farihah Zaman, Critic and Filmmaker
K.F. Watanabe, Director of Theatrical & Home Video Distribution, Grasshopper Film
SOUTHERN FEATURES JURY
Christopher Everett, Program Manager, Southern Documentary Fund
Wendy Garrett, Producer, Cinema Eye Honors
Keith Garcia, Sie FilmCenter Artistic Director, Denver Film Society
CRITICS PRIZE JURY
Brandon Harris, Filmmaker and Author
Chris Feil, Writer, and Podcaster, This Had Oscar Buzz
Susannah Gruder, Critic, Reverse Shot and IndieWire
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2022 announces filmmaker awards